COVID-19 Update May 27, 2020

May 27, 2020

Dear SACHA friends and Hamil­ton community, 

The Province of Ontario announced as of Tues­day, May 19, 2020, ​“in-per­son coun­selling ser­vices such as those deliv­ered by rape cri­sis cen­ters, may resume.” The province stress­es that the deliv­ery of such ser­vices can resume ​“pro­vid­ed that they are deliv­ered in com­pli­ance with the advice, rec­om­men­da­tions and instruc­tion of pub­lic health offi­cials. Wher­ev­er pos­si­ble, remote ser­vice deliv­ery is still encouraged.” 

The health and safe­ty of ser­vice users, vol­un­teers, staff and com­mu­ni­ties in Hamil­ton remains our pri­or­i­ty. There­fore, SACHA staff will con­tin­ue to work remote­ly. Coun­sel­lors will car­ry on pro­vid­ing dis­tance coun­selling and tele­phone intakes to sur­vivors. Admin­is­tra­tive staff con­tin­ue to assess the sit­u­a­tion in Hamil­ton and are work­ing on return to office plans includ­ing acquir­ing per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment, review­ing san­i­ti­za­tion process­es and set­ting up social dis­tanc­ing mea­sures in the office. 

I would like to inform you that we have made the dif­fi­cult deci­sion to can­cel our annu­al Choco­late Fest Fundrais­er that was resched­uled to the fall. All tick­ets sold will be refund­ed. Thank you very much to Sadie, our Choco­late Fest Coor­di­na­tor, and to mem­bers of the Fundrais­ing Com­mit­tee for your hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to Choco­late Fest. We are hope­ful to have a suc­cess­ful and cel­e­bra­to­ry Choco­late Fest in 2021. 

Final­ly, as we end Sex­u­al Vio­lence Aware­ness Month, I’d like to remind all sur­vivors that you are not alone, our 24-hr Sup­port Line is avail­able by call­ing 905−525−4162; you can also vis­it the Ontario Coali­tion of Rape Cri­sis Cen­tres https://​sex​u​alas​sault​sup​port​.ca/​s​u​p​port/ for a list­ing of cen­tres across Ontario. 

If you would like to get in touch with a staff mem­ber, please call our office at 905−525−4573 and leave a voice­mail. You can also send us a mes­sage using our online con­tact form http://​sacha​.ca/​c​o​ntact.

You are not alone. 

We believe survivors!

Sinceramente,

Jes­si­ca Bonilla-Damptey

Direc­tor